America's Most Wanted Fifth Graders

America's Most Wanted Fifth Grader by Jan Lawrence and Linda Raskin is about two fifth graders. A boy named Robert and a girl named Max who are best friends. These two really want to earn money to buy a Super Soaker 2000 so they start pet sitting for people and shoveling horse manure until they see a great opportunity in the newspaper where they can make $5,000 in one month! They go meet with the two men who tells them that they just need to sell some Cash-In-Advance Cookies and ask the people buying a few questions. The two are very excited about their new job but soon realize that it isn't quite what they expected. While at one of their biggest customer's house someone breaks in and starts taking the dear old lady's most prized possessions. Robert and Max notice something familiar about the robbers...
    I thought this was a good book. I liked the storyline of the book but I found the end to be a little unrealistic. However, I think many children starting at third grade would enjoy reading this book. I am currently reading this book with my reading buddy who needs some motivation to read and I think he is finally interested in reading because of this book. He is captivated by the circumstances these two kids are getting themselves into. This book has allowed us to have many great discussions to predict what is going to happen next and what we think about the two men that hired Robert and Max.
    This would be a great book to have in a classroom library and use as a read aloud. There are many activities that could be used with this book to increase student comprehension and get them talking about the book. Students as young as third grade will be able to enjoy this book on their own. Since the main characters are a boy and a girl many boys and girls will enjoy reading this book. The students will be able to relate to the book but also be able to imagine what it would be like to be in Robert and Max's shoes at certain points in the story. This would be a great book to read and talk to your students about lying and its effect on everyone who is involved in that lie. This is a great book that students will enjoy reading on their own or as a class and discussing many ideas from the book.